Askua's steak tartare
To the point: steak tartare is one of my favorite dishes in the world. That because? Because there is no dish more essential, more raw, more minimalist in its intentions: raw meat cut with a knife. Without cheating or cardboard or makeup or more silicone than the dressings that the coquinero plants (perrins sauce, egg yolk, pickles, vinegar, capers, mustard...) in this house -you can imagine- we are not to touch the plate much . And it is that here you play it with the raw material and there is no more trick (word of Don Ricardo Gadea) than the quality of the meat and the veal.
Steak tartare suits me. A no nonsense dish for no nonsense people. And it is that after an exemplary Tartar one feels as happy as detective Philip Marlowe "leaving his apartment in Bel Air, shaved, on a flowery spring day." In the origin of the dish, we also (also!) find the necessary dose of folklore, literature and ghosts: the meat macerated by Mongol horsemen under the saddle of their steeds (if Hermès raised its head) on his travels across the prairies to Ulan-Bator. Nonsense, of course (but how cool). Hundreds of years later, the beef in tartar pokes its paw between the pages of Miguel Strogoff by Jules Verne, from there to the Culinary Guide (bible) by Auguste Escoffier, to the great French restaurants of the beginning of the century, to the most traditional Madrid (how they like this dish in Madrid) and from there to heaven. In other words, to Celler de Can Roca.
These are my favorites (in no more order than blessed memory):
**1) Askua (Felip Maria Garin, 4. Valencia) **
I admit it. My thing with Ricardo Gadea's house is devotion. His steak tartare has acolytes in all the bull skin and it is impossible not to surrender to the quality of the beef that Luismi Garayar only reserves for Ricardo and Martín Berasategui. Askua tartar is unctuous and perfect , and perhaps part of the secret is that he makes it with the center of the tenderloin, not with the trimmings or the tips (A common practice in many restaurants, which save the center of the piece for medallions or Wellingtons). I ask Ricardo about the mystery: ethics, work, sacrifice, effort and humility. There is nothing.
The tartare of El Gastronomo
**2) Dawn (Jorge Juan, 33. Madrid) **
One of the Madrid Tartars who I remember between sobs and breaks It is the exemplary steak that Jorge Dávila (National Gastronomy Award, Best Sala Director 2011) prepared at Piñera. Today Jorge directs Albora in the middle of Jorge Juan, next to the pretty girls and the sewing shops of less hipster Madrid. Albora is essential, as is her terrace, her Joselito portions and the steak tartare that she brought us here.
Albora: the steak tartare that brought us here
**3) Lakasa (Raimundo Fernández Villaverde, 26. Madrid) **
How fat the one that César Martín is riding in Madrid. There is no gastronomad who has not already surrendered to this enlightened, honest and essential neo-tavern. Cook without nonsense, seasonal products and kilos of love in the kitchen. Everything works at Lakasa (the rhythm, the room, the gastronomic proposal, the attitude towards the client) the pity (enormous, indescribable pity) is that the steak tartar is only prepared (in front of the diner, as God intended) on Saturdays. They do it in their “karrito” and Martín himself prepares it. Do not miss it.
**4) The Gourmet (Primado Reig, 149. Valencia) **
Enough of jokes: but how damn well you eat at El Gastrónomo. Of course, do not look here for Lichtenstein prints or lounge music or moderns hiding the tip (yuck). And how necessary, that places like this continue to exist, where people talk about you and remember your name. But let's go with the meat, because at the table Jose Javier Martínez prepares (here is a video on how he prepares it) some One of the best steak tartare I have ever tasted. Essential.
The Gastronome: essential
**5) Paloma House (Casanova 209. Barcelona) **
A note: Jordi Gotor prepares more than 10,000 Tatars a year . So they get the idea, I say. Casa Paloma has made the steak tartar its flag (beautiful video). At Casanova 209 they work with the Angus (Argentine pasture), Frisian (Central Europe) and Wagyu (Japan) breeds, in this space that is already a classic (in just two years) at night in Vila de Gràcia.
Casa Paloma and one of its 10,000 annual steak tartare
**6) Alborada (Mayor Francisco Vázquez Promenade, 25. A Coruña) **
Javier Rey (Michelin Star) is one of the benchmarks of new Galician cuisine. Zero kilometer cuisine whose closest references are Marcelo Tejedor or Pepe Solla and who does not beat around the bush: simplicity, silence and product. One of his most recognized dishes is the steak tartar of beef tenderloin with onion caramel . And what a pleasure, to see how they prepare it in their glassed-in dining room facing the Atlantic with a Côte-Rôtie in the glass (if you ask me: for the tartar, Rhône syrah).
Alborada steak tartare
**7) L'Office (Villaroel, 227. Barcelona) **
How could I not plant a bistro (what a nice word, huh) in this selection. L'Office is not on the path of foodies (beyond them) and perhaps it is because they cannot be further from fashion: “Specialized in great classics of French haute cuisine” . Jérôme Perraudin moved from the south-west of France to this side of the Pyrenees and his steak tartare is already an essential reference for all of us who love raw knife-cut meat.
**8)Tickets bar (Paral lel, 164. Barcelona) **
Being part of the Can Fabes team (I was, I am, I will be) does not mean that I did not cry with emotion like a girl in love at that last dinner in Cala Montjoi. One of the dishes that I clearly remember is the tomato tartar that left us all giddy. A trompe l'oeil (yes, what's up, it made us all doubt) impossible to forget. Today you can enjoy it with Albert Adrià in the middle of Parallel at Tickets Bar.
Plus? The classicism of The committee , the good work of Dolium , the rogue steak of Ricard Camarena , the quality of Ángel García in lavinia , the product of knocker , the after-meals in Caldeni , the story of Zalacain...
Health.
A dish without nonsense